A team of researchers has reconstructed the life of a species that was unknown to science following the discovery of a fossil in the small Mexican municipality of Vallecillo in 2012
An illustration of ‘Aquilolamna milarcae,’ or the eagle shark
Ninety-three million years ago a creature that would be quite unimaginable today roamed the oceans of North America. “When taking a first look at this specimen, you realize that you are witnessing something extraordinary and completely new,” says Romain Vullo of Geosciences Rennes, a research team set up by the University of Rennes and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and which is leading studies on the first and only example of Aquilolamna milarcae. The common name for the species is eagle shark, given on account of its two huge pectoral fins, which are similar to those of a manta ray. The fossil was discovered in 2012 in Vallecillo, a small municipality in Mexico’s Nuevo León state, but it wasn’t until March 19 that it was documented in Science magazine.
